My travel experience Archives - HeartBrokenStilettos

Greetings from Germany!

Just a quick update because I didn’t write here lately:

The club where I work now, it reminds me of the first club I worked. A bit quiet but nice and relaxing. I like everything about it. The accommodation is just super, I have my own room with my own bathroom and kitchenette. I don’t need to share it with other dancers.

And I was a little shocked upon arrival when I saw the boss cleaning up the room for me, usually, they just leave it as the previous girl left it, and I have to clean before I move in. Those girls who travel for work know it’s very rare in this business. Dancers apartments are usually dirty and overcrowded.

Here if I want to run around naked all day, I can do it. I’m by myself. (No, it’s not boring! That’s my well-desired peacefulness!)

I like working with German guys. They are polite and easygoing, they know if they come to the club, it costs them some money. Not all buy drinks or dances, but at least they buy dollars tipping the dancers. Just a very few think they are in a cinema and they can just watch without paying. Here is no stage show all night, if they don’t pay, we don’t dance. Perfect! I like this house rule, it’s just a waste of energy dancing for guys if they don’t pay. It makes you tired for nothing. Here I don’t feel tired since I’m here (end of September) I only took one day off. The town is small but great, lots of parks around if I feel unmotivated or just need a good walk.

And I also have a good relationship with the people in the club. Funny, those who can speak English here, I don’t want to talk to them, and those I like to speak only German or very little English. It’s just putting me to learn more German, which is great! I already regretted the time I spent in other countries without learning the language, here I have a bit more chance to do so. I also think about going back to school, so I dusted my old psychology books and brought them with me. It keeps me occupied these days. When the club is not busy, I’m sitting in the corner wearing lingerie and heavy make-up and reading the Introduction to social psychology book or German grammar. Funny though, but you know by now I’m not your average stripper.

So for all these reasons above, I feel I’m in the perfect place right now. I think my travels stop here, I will come back to this club only. No more reason for me searching for other clubs.

I’m happy where I am now.

Kisses from sunny Costa Brava

(Meanwhile, I arrived back to London, but I wrote this when I was still there, so let me share the original post.)

Sun, sea, beach, good food, sangria.. what else can I wish for more?

I was hesitating to come to Spain or go to Greece instead, but I thought I’ve been in Greece already, let’s try Spain this time! I was a bit worried as I heard a lot about the clubs here and almost all of them offer more than a regular private dance. This club 2 years ago was a brothel too, no wonder if guys are still continuously asking for sex.

And actually, I’m lucky that I came here instead of Greece. The Czech girl who arrived yesterday was there and she almost didn’t get paid according to the crisis there. One night the owner paid her normally but the next one “Sorry I don’t have enough money. So I gave you just that much.” It’s not correct as we have a contract with the clubs how much they must pay for us. And most of our money is commission based. It means customers come and pay, we have the percentage of their money spent on us. With daily payment, I want to get the whole amount on the same day, especially in those countries where they don’t keep the records clear. In countries like Germany, it won’t be a problem as they write everything down.

In Norway I worked for Albanians, in Canada for Asians, now in Spain I work for Russians.

It’s just funny yet confusing, my bosses don’t have a typical Russian name like Sergei or Dimitri. Never heard that name before, now I have three of them in the same club (plus one more in another club)

They are new in business and a little bit unprofessional. But because they don’t know how to make it better, at least they don’t stress the girls to make more money for them.

But the club is boring. It has lots of potentials, but still boring. I can imagine here parties, special shows just like in the local discotheques. The barwoman has enough time to practice her pole dance knowledge, instead of serving the customers. I make money on customers. But how can I make money if it’s a Saturday night, the club is empty, only two young guys are sitting there with one drink (one had only water) not even the bar makes money on them. And finally after one and a half hour later they decide to buy one house dollar each to one of the girls on stage. Wow, she made 2€! And that was money hard earned as they though a boobie massage is included.

And let’s be honest, this is the Costa Brava! On the beach, our men see more tits than in a club where only 5 girls work and there are no continuous stage shows. I spend here more time topless on the beach than at work!

OK, I understand they just opened – maybe 4 months ago – and they are new in the business. Three middle-aged men. Maybe it’s a midlife crisis: they though opening a strip club is easy money and easy fuck for them?

But they have zero organisation skills. We gave them lots of advice as we travel a lot and have seen different clubs with different systems, but they don’t listen. Here if I could make 1000€ in 4 weeks that would be a miracle. But I knew that ahead, so no stress. I still get my 40€ daily salary even the club is empty. I never got 40€ for watching movies as we have Internet access in the club! Accommodation is provided and free of charge and it’s only 50 meters away from the beach. This is I call a paid holiday!

Here is like the language chaos of Babylon as the customers require me to speak Spanish or French, the owners Russian or German. Only a few people speak English, I just wondering why the hell they want English speaker girls then.

One night an Indian guy came to me:

“No chiki chiki?”

“No.” whatever he meant by that. (I have a guess though.)

But during the show in private, it doesn’t matter what language you speak. Words no needed.

The best way to learn a language to have a boyfriend who only speaks that particular language and your love for him will force you to learn. But this is the best way the hate a language too. Once I had a strong feeling for a guy from Puerto Rico, and I started to learn Spanish only because of him. Now I don’t even want to use the words I learned although I understand them. My passion to learn Spanish is gone with him. That scar is deeper than I thought and I realised it now. But I’m proud of my scars on my heart. Without them, it wouldn’t be ME.

Just an update to the end:

On my last week, I made more money than on the previous weeks altogether thanks to the young boys that came to the club. Some of them were nice and very enthusiastic while others were party animals. I like when they drunk and drugged, they forgot we already had a private dance. I have 5 privates with one of them and he thought each dance was the first! So I finished my contract with money and nicely tanned. No reason to complain.

My best moments of being a stripper

I got a question from a reader that if I’m not so happy in my profession why did I choose this one. I think I wrote down enough time that I chose this because it was a good opportunity to travel. But I started dancing 7 years ago. 7 years is a long period and people change. I also changed. I was happy doing this job but now when I travelled from Canada to China, I have different goals in my life and I look for other options. I think it’s absolutely normal in a person’s life when she/he realises it’s time to make certain changes. 7 years I showed to the world my sexy body. Now I feel it’s time to show that I also have a beautiful soul!

And about my best moments.. here are they:

That’s a photo montage I selected from my Facebook albums. I only used the photos where I’m alone, I don’t want to cause trouble to other dancers who wish to keep their identity a secret. But if I had never chosen to live in this way, I couldn’t have these pictures. As my mum used to say: “These are the memories that nobody can take away from you!”

Inside of the stripper’s house

Many of you are wondering how and where we live. I hope this little photo selection will satisfy your imagination. I’m a bit sad that I didn’t take photos of the most extreme places, but at that time I had no idea about this blog…

So here we are:

Sometimes I was accommodated in a hotel like this one. Perfect! We enjoyed the pool day and night!

In a few places, the view from the room is breathtaking…

Some club has the accommodation for the dancers in the middle of nowhere.

We feel lucky when there is a garden or at least a terrasse attached to the house…

..other places there is not even a proper window for the room.

It’s a hard battle to deal with these stairs carrying 20+kg luggage with no help.

Some accommodations come with rules (and you can make fun of the boss’s English)

And this is when there are no rules. But cockroaches and mice yes.

And now let’s see where we actually live!

Not in luxury apartments but not on matrasses on the ground as some might think.

The Antwerp Boot Camp

I couldn’t say a better description of the clubs here. It’s like a hard physical and mental military training where they push you beyond your own limits. I’ve worked here in a different club maybe 5 years ago, I knew what to expect, but things in time didn’t get any better. I remember 5 years ago when they offered an extra day off because they had enough girls, my friend and I stood up first. Those were very well appreciated and well spent days off with sleeping and resting after the exhausting work!

That’s my 2nd week working here and I feel I have no more power. Either physically and mentally. I should be a social butterfly with a huge smile on my face but some clubs just know how to kill it. All night long they leave the aircon on, it doesn’t matter if there are customers or not. Sometimes you feel you’re sitting in the fridge for hours – wearing nothing else but lingerie. And they don’t care much if the girls are cold or getting sick. We are sitting in a bar chair all night with a straight back (just like in school) and we have to dance minimum 7-8 times a night on stage, again if there are customers or not. I’m really crying back those times and clubs where nobody came in and we were sleeping or reading books on comfy sofas. Here we can’t even sit in the VIP area when no customers. Until 7 am. We can’t leave even 10 minutes earlier. Then we sign the papers etc., often it’s 8.30-9am when I go to bed. All for €35 fix salary per day (I make most of my money from tips, but this is not the kind of money you can rely on.) And if I fancy a drink from the bar (anything except water, even juice), I have to pay for it myself.

But what is really disturbing me that’s the music. 8 hours of house music, no variety. And it’s way too loud. If I don’t be deaf by the end of the contract here, that’s a miracle. No chance to talk to someone without screaming, sometimes I don’t hear my own voice. This music is perfect when you’re on drugs but if not? I don’t take any.. (but here I’m seriously thinking about it just to survive!) Ah, and drugs: it’s a Canaan for those who take drugs because you can get ANYTHING from customers for free! But if you don’t, it sucks. And sometimes the other boss (I didn’t know he’s also a boss, I thought he’s just a drunk, drugged attention-seeking customer because he doesn’t behave like a boss) comes in and makes noise hitting a metal tray on the bar. It’s a proper mental terror! (and God knows how much I’d like to hit his head with that tray at 6.30am!)

In the apartment the kitchen is empty, we didn’t have even a kettle. I voluntarily bought one because I didn’t want to go outside to Starbucks every time I fancy a coffee. (I drink a lot!) In the other apartment, the girls put some money together to buy a micro so at least they can heat up their food. We don’t even have a fridge! And when you work in places like this, you need to eat properly and healthy as food is a source of energy. I’m eating fast food since I’m here, no wonder I have not too much energy these days. Not even for posting here.

So yes, this club really pushing my limits, both mental and physical. But as they say, if it doesn’t kill you, it makes you stronger. I hope it’s true.

(In the last few posts it sounds I complained a lot about the clubs I worked at. It’s kind of true because lately, I didn’t work in a club where I felt good and appreciated. And these are the pure facts about the stripping industry, no makeup. If you think it’s a sugary, sweet world where everybody is happy and makes amazingly good money, then this blog is for you to read.)